Chapter 366: The Mutual-Destruction Thunder |
"Pfft—"
The force packed into that punch was terrifying—nearly enough to kill Scorpio on the spot earlier. Upon impact, Cheng Shi immediately coughed up a mouthful of blood, his body hurtling backward until he crashed against the wall with Turadin beneath him. Pale-faced, he crouched up.
He'd blocked most of the attack, but the splash of [Oblivion] still caught Turadin. Flesh began rotting and vanishing instantly, leaving him disfigured.
Combined with the violent crash, the unconscious Head of Church's son jolted awake—and his first sensation was agonized screaming.
"AHHH—"
Cheng Shi couldn't tend to him now. He hacked twice, raised his head, and wiped the blood from his lips. Defiant determination flashed through his eyes—only to be immediately followed by another spray of blood, even more vivid than the first.
The dynamic had reversed in an instant. The attacker who hadn't even launched his offensive was suddenly on the back foot—a lamb under [Oblivion]'s brutal assault.
"Cough cough—impressive..."
Cheng Shi clutched his shoulder, body trembling.
"Nice acting. But the blood's a bit off. Your blood pack seems to be expired."
"Huh?"
Cheng Shi glanced at the floor and noticed the second mouthful was indeed somewhat too dark. His lips twitched as he stood up, face full of embarrassment.
He was completely fine. Under Endless Life's protection, he didn't even need to heal himself!
It was all an act. He'd been trying to blindside the opponent—but a detail glitch had blown his cover.
So he could only shrug and sigh: "Ah well, secondhand goods are unreliable. Who still uses expired blood packs? What a waste of emotion..."
Mo Shu's eye twitched. He looked at Cheng Shi with faint amusement:
"So our agreement is void?"
Cheng Shi blinked blankly: "What agreement?"
"...Very well. Then they're all mine." Mo Shu snorted a laugh and turned to leave.
But Cheng Shi made no move to stop him. Quite the opposite—he turned his back entirely, exposing himself completely.
He hauled up the wailing Turadin, fired a quick healing spell to keep him alive, slapped tape over his mouth, then shoved him out the window.
Only after all that did he turn around and say casually:
"Go ahead. Two people dying—so what? They've got nothing to do with me. People die every day these days. As long as I'm alive, who gives a damn."
But it was precisely this baffling behavior that made Mo Shu's brow furrow. He didn't leave immediately.
He was a cautious man—every bit as cautious as Zhang Jizu.
He was thinking: a [Fate] follower, someone widely discussed among peak players, even Zhen Yi's rumored boyfriend—such a man with such a complex identity, risking it all to teleport over here... just to save a dispensable NPC? Was that normal?
No. Extremely not normal.
Mystics were always the most enigmatic bunch. Their simplest actions often concealed the most labyrinthine schemes. Even against a priest, Mo Shu couldn't afford carelessness.
He suspected Cheng Shi had already set traps around the perimeter before arriving—a net waiting for him to leave to kill. That's why the Fate Weaver seemed so relaxed about not blocking. Which meant [Fate] traps lurked nearby.
Priest or not—at their tier, class wasn't a limitation anymore. Everyone carried a few tricks up their sleeve.
Just like himself—didn't he have [Deceit]'s gift?
So until he understood Cheng Shi's true objective, Mo Shu wouldn't act rashly.
But Mo Shu's immobility didn't mean Cheng Shi was idle too.
As soon as Cheng Shi finished speaking, a handful of dice materialized in his palm. With a light chuckle, he tossed them high, scattering them to every corner of the room.
Mo Shu watched with sharpened eyes, smiling:
"Never Lost Gambling Gear. A priest choosing a talent like this—truly interesting."
He spoke while his hands stayed busy. Now that he knew how Cheng Shi had teleported to him, he naturally wouldn't let the same trick work twice. He waved his hand, sending every object in the room as an offering to his Benefactor, [Oblivion].
"The interesting part comes later."
Cheng Shi didn't stop. He scattered another handful of dice. Mo Shu frowned and annihilated those too.
One threw, the other destroyed. After two such rounds, Mo Shu laughed:
"Stalling for time?"
"What—you think this small window is enough for that NPC to escape my vision?"
Cheng Shi laughed too. But he didn't respond—instead, amid the rain of dice, he slipped in a mask.
Mo Shu had been casually annihilating everything in the room—but the moment he spotted an unfamiliar mask among the dice, he froze. He pulled back his [Oblivion] power instantly.
Furthermore, his gaze locked onto Cheng Shi's eyes, trying to glean what this mask signified.
But Cheng Shi ignored him and kept scattering. Before long, the dice rain contained increasingly bizarre objects.
A magician's hat. An acrobat's costume. A beast-tamer's whip... and a bizarre, fleshy little figurine.
As the pile of items he didn't dare annihilate grew, Mo Shu's expression darkened steadily.
Instinct told him that compared to whatever [Fate] traps might lurk outside, the objects inside this room were potentially far more dangerous.
He decided he was done playing with this Fate Weaver. Brow furrowed, he resolved to tear open the Void and flee to continue his hunt.
Every prior agreement was hereby null and void.
But just as Mo Shu opened his mouth to bid Cheng Shi farewell—Cheng Shi moved again!
He raised his hand once more, delivering from his mouth another Thundering Judgment.
BOOM—
Mo Shu's gaze sharpened as he dodged slightly. Seeing it was another blank, his expression turned dark:
"The boy who cried wolf doesn't work on me. No matter how many times you do it, I'll dodge."
"[Void] isn't understood this way. You're supposed to make the world void—not do baffling, pointless things."
"Time's up. I'm done playing. Farewell, Fate Weaver."
The very instant Mo Shu prepared to rend the Void with [Oblivion]'s power, Cheng Shi raised his hand again and fired at the space before him—
No. Five Thundering Judgments!
That's right. Five consecutive shots!
He truly hadn't come just to rescue Turadin—nor solely for the Clown Substitute on Mo Shu's person. Before arriving, he'd already planned to test the potency of his Vitality authority through mutual destruction!
Yes—mutual destruction!
So these five thunderbolts weren't aimed at Mo Shu at all. They simply flooded the entire space with lightning.
Mo Shu, true to his own creed of caution, had dodged the instant Cheng Shi raised his hand. But he never expected: this time, the thunder was real—and inescapable!
In this cramped space, rampaging thunder threatened to tear apart spacetime itself. But even at this level of devastation, the Scavenger might have found a gap to escape before full detonation.
However, Cheng Shi's assault didn't stop there. Simultaneously with the five Thundering Judgments, he activated his [Fate] talent: Fate Has Divergence!
Before misfortune strikes, greater misfortune has already been brewing.
Under [Fate]'s manipulation, the hyper-dense lightning plasma folded back on itself, converging at a serendipitous instant to trigger resonance in [Thundering]'s divine power. As the Authority of Thunder cascaded freely, even the Void itself froze for a heartbeat—and in that heartbeat, Mo Shu, who'd just torn open the Void, watched his expression contort violently. He couldn't escape in time!
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM—
The building exploded.
Wild thunder poured from the sky. The entire structure was instantly reduced to ash, and everything within hundreds of meters was leveled by the overflowing devastation!
Yet even amidst the ruins, residual lightning still flickered across the horrifying scorched earth, accompanied by ceaseless rumbling.
In this moment, it was as if [Thundering] Himself had descended—dead yet resurrected!
Under this intensity of annihilating lightning, nobody could survive—except...
Someone who also wielded a true god's authority.
Cheng Shi—the clown who bore a fragment of the Vitality Authority—knelt naked on that thunder-plowed earth. Skin dangling, body charred black, burns reaching bone, face horrifying.
But at least he wasn't dead. Even the resonance of five Thundering Judgments hadn't fully extinguished his vitality!
As for his opponent—his target—the [Oblivion] Chosen One, Mo Shu...
Also not dead!
Not only alive, but in better shape than Cheng Shi—not a single wound on his body. His condition looked more like he'd been restored to peak form.
But while his body survived, his mind had nearly died from shock.
His pin-point pupils and split-cornered expression laid bare just how violently his composure had shattered!
Mo Shu had never imagined the Fate Weaver came not to kill him—but to take him down together.
Stranger still: he distinctly felt himself die for an instant, yet was somehow revived by unknown means.
That wasn't his own failsafe. He'd just confirmed his backup was still intact, untriggered.
Bizarre.
Feeling the lingering world-shattering power, staring at the kneeling-yet-alive Cheng Shi, his assessment of this lunatic soared to infinity—and dread crept in.
'What IS this person trying to do?'
Peak players' madness was rarely pure madness—they always profited from it. But this Fate Weaver?
What was his profit?
'Wait—something's wrong!'
Mo Shu moved. He decided not to overthink—just kill this maniac who'd dragged him into mutual destruction first.
But simultaneously, Cheng Shi also moved.
With a hoarse, ghastly laugh, he crawled forward like a zombie, snatched up a charred, palm-sized something from the rubble—then snapped his fingers and instantly vanished.
Mo Shu's form froze at the exact spot Cheng Shi had disappeared. He'd come within a hair's breadth of keeping that damned Fate Weaver under his fist.
Staring at the afterimage of Cheng Shi's vanishing figure, his eyes glinted with cold fury:
"Brilliant!"
"But... what the hell kind of trick was that?!"
...
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